Global Travels & World Youth Day

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Canonized on April 27, 2014, Saint John Paul II is one of the most important figures of the past century. Working alongside Gallagher & Associates—the museum planning and design firm—Bluecadet was charged with creating two digital exhibits at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC: the World Travels touchscreen and the World Youth Day interactive table.

Bluecadet guided the interactives from concept to completion, starting with a thorough discovery phase to determine project goals, available assets, and the most evocative ways of telling Saint John Paul II’s story. Then, we got to work researching and developing the content and creating multi-user interfaces that allow visitors to engage with rich media simultaneously. We authored a custom software framework to support the wealth of dynamic images, text, and typography. Our team’s agile approach allowed for testing and adjusting as needed throughout the design iteration process.

World Travels touchscreen

The 14-foot-long World Travels touchscreen invites visitors to explore Saint John Paul II’s 104 global trips, which are brought to life by powerful video clips and photographs. Subtly cinematic transitions and animations unify the multimedia components and make the touchscreen experience both streamlined and engaging for multiple users.

Along a historic timeline that spans six screens, visitors can select trips by browsing the photography-driven, scrollable panels. There’s even a search interface so that visitors can find out if the Pope made a trip to their home country. The adaptable navigation ensures accessibility by allowing visitors to drag the content to their height. Six discreet, ultrasonic distance sensors identify when a visitor walks nearby, triggering the displays to change and encouraging interaction.

World Youth Day interactive table

World Youth Day was launched by Saint John Paul II during his papacy, and visitors can step up to the nine-foot-long World Youth Day interactive table to virtually travel to the cities which have hosted these massive gatherings. Small, circular discs indicate the cities that have drawn hundreds of thousands of youth, including Paris, Manila, Toronto, and Denver. After selecting a disc and placing it anywhere on the interactive table, visitors are prompted to move it along a path, which unlocks engaging content such as archival images, videos, and quotes.

The last stop of the journey prompts users to reflect on several quotes from the Pope and select the one they feel best represents the experience. This selected quote is then digitally “attached” to their disc, to be displayed when the next museum visitor puts it on the table. We designed a custom software application to facilitate this unique combination of digital and physical interactivity. We aimed to reflect the intention of World Youth Day, creating an experience that gathers and connects people from around the globe.